Tsonga

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga heads to retirement with a French Open first-round loss, the first of the Four Musketeers to bow out. French tennis eyes reinforcements.

He played for the 2008 Australian Open title, becoming the first of nine players to lose to Novak Djokovic in a final in Melbourne. I hope it will be the same for the French future.” Most of the other French players ranked in the top 100 are veterans who had their chances to make deep major runs. He also lost to them 17 times combined at the Slams. If not a golden generation, it proved to be an unforgettable one, with another memory added Tuesday. “There would have been no second match, because I left everything on the court today,” said Tsonga, who last week said his mind and body were telling him it’s time to stop playing. And now there is no more Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a leading French player for years who lost in the first round of his farewell tournament. Gasquet won Tuesday, setting up a second round match with American Seb Korda, who is 14 years younger. He is the lone Frenchman to make a major final in the last 21 years. But that broad shoulder, which helped carry Tsonga to No. 5 in the world a decade ago, could not bear any more. In a way I finish like I want to finish.” Tsonga injured his right shoulder on an otherwise climactic point, breaking Ruud’s serve to go up 6-5 in the fourth.

While Tsonga lost to Casper Ruud in his final singles match, the 37-year-old will play doubles with Richard Gasquet one last time before retiring for good.

Tsonga departs having built a wonderful career defined by his athleticism, his delicate touch at the net and his instincts. Along with his charisma, it made him an idol for so many, such as Félix Auger-Aliassime, who was present at the stadium as Tsonga battled. He has suffered through numerous injuries in his final years, with his movement and his athleticism disintegrating as a result. No longer able to compete, Tsonga lost 11 of the final 12 points of his career. As Tsonga tearfully lost 6-7 (6), 7-6 (4), 6-2, 7-6 (0), one of the standout, most enjoyable tennis careers of the past 15 years came to an end. He banged his chest and rallied the crowd.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has ended his career as a singles tennis player with a four-set loss to Norway's Casper Ruud in the first round of the French Open.

The locals gave Tsonga a prolonged standing ovation, and he went up near the net, knelt and rested his forehead on the ground, creating a splotch of the rust-coloured clay on his face. When play resumed, Tsonga could barely even serve, tapping the ball at barely more than 100 km/h -- less than half as fast as the booming offerings he was known for -- and even tried hitting one shot left-handed as the tiebreaker ended in a shutout. Tsonga leaves with 121 wins in grand slam matches, a record for a French man. But at the end of that game, he wrenched his shoulder, and that was that. One of the best atmospheres I have seen in my career (for) my last match. He appeared to have a chance to extend the match by breaking to go up 6-5 in the fourth set.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a former Australian Open runner-up and world number five, said he “couldn't have asked for a better script” as he bid an emotional ...

However, his struggles with a number of different injuries in recent years has seen his ranking tumble to 297. But I thought, ‘I’m going to stay on the court and finish off this match’,” Tsonga said. I didn’t really know where to go. My eyes were all over the place. “I couldn’t have asked for something better. “When I was about to serve and I realised I couldn’t put my arm up, then I called for the physio.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga bids a tearful farewell to tennis as his body betrays him one last time — while Australia's Alex de Minaur is left frustrated by French ...

I've never looked back but now is the time to do it," Tsonga told the crowd. If his body didn't fail him so many times, the same could be true. "It's great day for me. Once his ordeal ended, Tsonga, who won the 2017 Davis Cup with France, was greeted on court by all of his former coaches and his parents wearing a "Merci Jo" T-shirt, as well as his children. Tsonga had the physiotherapist on for a shoulder problem and he could barely roll his arm over in the tiebreak, pain etched on his face. So, it was with the cruellest stroke of irony that, as he looked set to deliver one final defiant performance, his shoulder fell apart and he finished his career in tears on the Paris clay.

'Goosebumps': Incredible goodbye leaves cult hero in tears.

But I thought, ‘I’m going to stay on the court and finish off this match’,” Tsonga said. However, his struggles with a number of different injuries in recent years has seen his ranking tumble to 297. I didn’t really know where to go. My eyes were all over the place. “I couldn’t have asked for something better. “When I was about to serve and I realised I couldn’t put my arm up, then I called for the physio.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has retired from tennis after a first-round loss at the French Open, marking the end of a generation of his countrymen.

As a new documentary makes clear, he remains an enduring source of fascination in France and did his part through the years as Davis Cup captain and French federation consultant to inspire his successors. Tsonga, who once boarded inside the stadium complex as an aspiring junior, is the first of the new Musketeers to retire, although he will soon have company. At the time, with his foot speed, forehand and youth, it seemed self-evident that Tsonga would experience more such occasions. But thousands more French fans eventually found their seats and rose to the occasion, in part because Tsonga rose to it himself, even in defeat. Djokovic was the first: defeating him in Tsonga’s only Grand Slam singles final at the 2008 Australian Open. But with Tuesday as a target, he found inspiration, and though logic suggested that he had no business pushing Ruud to the limit, he came surprisingly, poignantly close. He was not alone in the tears. “I’m proud of myself,” he confirmed. The grand and renovated stadium was barely half full when Tsonga walked onto the red clay in the early afternoon after wiping tears from his eyes in the tunnel. There is no exiting the arena gracefully through substitution, no convincing manner to mask the erosion of skills and speed. Part of the professional game’s Darwinian appeal is that there is no place to hide. Though he has beaten them all multiple times on the strength of his huge serve and forehand and attacking skills, they all have, more often than not, stolen his thunder through the years, exploiting his much weaker backhand wing.